WELCOME!

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by.

I write fantasy for tweens and teens. I blog about books and writing and occasionally travel and homeschooling.

My world of Aluvia series is with Curiosity Quills Press, and is an upper-middle grade fantasy, well-suited for ages 11-14, though all ages can enjoy it. FAIRY KEEPER, MER-CHARMER and DRAGON REDEEMER each stand-alone but are best read as a series. My fourth book will be releasing with Blaze Publishing this summer, called THE WORST VILLAIN EVER.

This is a family-friendly site. Note: There are some spoilers in a few of my book reviews, primarily the ones done for my grad school classes. I do warn readers with a big, "SPOILER!" announcement on the review.

Welcome! I'd love to hear from you, so feel free to leave a comment!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

It's...ALIVE?

So, it's been over a year since my last posting. I had no idea. I really did stop writing for a long time, at least my own personal writing. I continued writing passages for assessment companies, as that pays the bills, and that writing took about all the creative juice I had left in me.

Then a friend I will call Fabulous Writer Friend asked me to be her critique buddy and read her current work-in-progress. Reading and commenting on her work stirred up all that exciting stuff about writing...the way words flow together, that magic of creating your own world, watching your characters do things you didn't expect...and I began to think about my own work. I pulled out my old manuscripts. Then I got a notice about an upcoming writing conference held by our local chapter of SCBWI. Critiques were available for members, of which I am one. It gave me the motivation to get involved again. It's not that I've done ZERO writing of my own. I actually did write a picture book manuscript and sent it off to about five agents and got rejected five times and then quit for a long time. And the last time I went to a conference, they suggested the middle of my fantasy MG novel needed a new twist, so I tried to add one and it totally didn't work. I began another MG manuscript, this one contemporary with some poetry in there. I liked it, but it's probably too...blah. No good hook for it. So I put it away, too. Then I decided that I would probably never be successful and I should just use my time on other projects. I watched True Blood and Dexter and LOST and admired their story-telling abilities. I read numerous books. I tried to catch up on my sleep.

The problem? I MISSED WRITING. Not so much the actual butt-in-chair of writing. It's fun once it gets going, but getting started can feel like pulling fingernails out with pliers, one at a time. But reading books on writing? Oh, how I love it. So Fabulous Writing Friend said, "Hey, I'm reading this book called Fire in the Fiction. How about you get it and we can discuss a chapter at a time?" Awesome! So while I was ordering that, I happened across another cool website that recommended another cool book (which I will post later) and I ordered that. And then that website had another book on it that I liked the looks of, so I ordered that. And so now I have three books on writing, well, four, really, and I'll tell you more about them as I get to them. I've also been enjoying reading a lot, even rereading mindless brain-candy type of writing because...well, I enjoy it. But I think I may be ready to jump in again to the world of writing my own stuff. It always calls me back. I'm pretty short-term when it comes to most projects. I am easily distracted and get bored fast. But writing is so complex that it always fascinates. That's just one of it's many lures! So, in that spirit, I will be reviving this blog. Hope you will join me. :)